Spring Children’s Preview
22 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY FEBRUARY 2, 2026
Romantic possibility is the immediate draw of her latest work, which follows two characters for whom love should be off the table. Upon learning that she was switched at birth and is not in fact fae but the true heir to the seelie kingdom, Forgive-Me-Not must bring the impostor princess Aisling back to the fae in order to take her place. And so the journey begins. For both Aisling and Forgive-Me-Not, there are plenty of iden- tity shifts that summon the familiar adolescent feeling of navigat- ing who one really is for the first time. “I needed to think about what I was like at the time,” Costa says of writing for a YA audi- ence. “All the heightened emotions and reactions that you end up having. Your life is changing and you don’t know what’s going on.” Forgive-Me-Not grapples with whether returning Aisling to the fae against her wishes in order to get what she wants is truly the best path forward—a major first for Forgive-Me-Not, whose determination is a defining character trait. As the tale proves, sometimes all one needs is a bit of time, which the graphic novel format can offer its characters. “One of my favorite things in romance comics is how you can have that organic development that would take a while to describe in prose,” Costa says. “It’s a little bit easier to believe when you’ve got one page with time passing, where the characters are getting to know each other. If you’re reading that in a novel, you’re like, No, I wanted to see that in more detail.” Similar to Burks, Ochoa started The Kiss Bet on Webtoon and transitioned to traditional publishing. The series centers around Sara Lin, whose romantic life is kick-started when she agrees to a dare by her friend Patrick to have her first kiss with a stranger. Reluctant to throw away a major milestone, Sara attempts to find the right guy to share her first kiss with, and winds up with more options than she expects. The digital-to-physical pipeline is a bright spot, according to Ochoa, who has noticed audience preferences for analog and tangible media. “There’s something about physical books that we all crave,” Ochoa says. “I think we’re all going back to older times where we can physically own things, because now we have to rent or subscribe to everything. Owning my own books, being able to hold them in my own hands, it just feels so beautiful.” Sara’s first kiss isn’t the only first she’s facing. In previous install- ments, Sara has had to come to terms with her crushes not adding up to what she wants in real life, a disappointment that every young person deals with at some point. “A big part of volume three is Sara realizing that sometimes you can finally get what you wanted for years—and still wonder if it’s happening too late,” Ochoa says. She explains that she recognizes how relatable Sara’s triumphs and failures are because she’s been through them herself. “At first I wrote The Kiss Bet in secret. And now I get a lot of people writing to me, saying, Oh, this feels so realistic and relatable.” Whether the characters are navigating major firsts, a complicated past, or dreams that offer refuge, YA romance graphic novels fill a demand for stories that blend prose with unique visual storytelling. It’s a format that continues to grow, thanks to both digital spaces and communities, and the embracing of traditional publishing. Romance can feel like it’s the start and end of the world when one is young. But Ochoa has advice that can apply to both romance graphic novels and love in general: “Just enjoy it.” W
Adeline Kon
Mari Costa
Ingrid Ochoa
while watching the 2018 Winter Olympics, recognized a certain enchantment between performer and spectator that mirrors romance. “You as a person are on center stage, and you are reach- ing to the audience, trying to express something to them through performance,” she says. “But also, as an athlete, you’re trying your hardest to make these jumps. I like the dichotomy.” The author also enjoys the intense focus that the romance genre offers, by homing in on the interiority of two characters. “I’ve always liked character-focused stories, and I feel like romance lends itself to that really easily,” she says. According to Kon, much of the romance in Just Between Us stems from the characters’ inescapable rivalry, which bleeds into all aspects of their lives. “I wanted Elaine and Lydia to have a magnetic relationship, both on and off the ice,” she explains. “It is a romantic relationship, but it is also a story about two people desperately trying to understand each other.” Sometimes words can’t say it all, which is the allure of the romance graphic novel—the way the art can speak for the moments that require a pause. “I think really big or even small romantic moments can feel more special and beautiful and emo- tional because of the drawings,” Kon says. “That’s the beauty of showing those relationships on a page.” SPRING AWAKENINGS The stars of The Kiss Bet, Vol. 3 by Ingrid Ochoa (Webtoon Unscrolled, Feb.) and Forgive-Me-Not by Mari Costa (First Second, Apr.) are having two very different kinds of awakenings. Ochoa’s star, Sara Lin, is dealing with the aftermath of her first kiss, while Costa’s titular protagonist, Forgive-Me-Not, discovers her true identity as the heir to a throne. Costa, who got her start in the comics world on Webtoon, has long been a fan of the romance genre for its reliability and com- fort, especially growing up in what she found was a comics world that felt more “action adventure forward.” She says, “Romance has always been part of my work, one way or the other.”
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